Easter without the Bunny

“Holidays here just don’t feel like holidays.” Jeff and I were sitting in church waiting for Mass to start on Holy Thursday when he said this to me. I couldn’t agree more. Since the priest was already running a half hour late for Mass, we had plenty of time to talk about why there isn’t that “holiday feel” here. No season changes, no commercialization of the holidays, no Easter bunny or Santa Clause, and people don’t get excited about them (maybe because there are no gifts?!) were all among our top reasons.

Why Jeff and I were having our holiday talk, Gregg was getting dressed up as one of the 12 disciples for the Last Supper Mass. Our priest wanted to do a reenactment of the Last Supper with people from El Chaco that really serve the community and have women among the disciples. Pretty cool.

Gregg was picked as one of the outstanding Chaqueños. During Mass, each one of the “disciples” was recognized for their service. An elderly mentally-handicapped man that picks up trash around town, an elementary school teacher who has taught for 40 years and a tall gringo who left his country and family to volunteer in El Chaco (direct quote) were among the 12.

The strangest thing about Easter is that Easter Sunday really isn’t celebrated. Good Friday is the day families gather and have a big meal. We spent the day with the Ashqui family and had a great meal of trout and potatoes. Saturday night we all went to Mass together, which was held in Chaco’s gymnasium due to the huge crowd. That night the priest was an hour late for Mass. No worries though. No one seemed to care.

When Mass finally started the lights were turned off and everyone was handed a candle. For the first hour and a half of Mass the gym was filled with candlelight from about 500 candles. Really beautiful, really long Mass. Gregg, Jeff and I were sitting with all the Ashquis and we were able to keep ourselves entertained blowing out each other’s candles.

Both Gregg and I had given up chocolate for Lent and had been saving the Cadbury eggs and York peppermint patties that my sister Kate had sent us for our Easter feast. They were incredible and greatly appreciated- a little taste of home!

Easter Sunday was like any other Sunday in El Chaco. Gregg and I went to the market in the morning to buy our fruits and vegetables and then we both played soccer games like normal. My team played in a neighboring town, so we had some time to talk as we were traveling. Nobody even mentioned that it was Easter Sunday!

In the afternoon, we got a call to come to the church to eat lamb. Seems the priest remembered it was Easter and had organized a little get together. We had a nice meal of lamb organ/intestines soup and lamb meat with rice and potatoes. We were asked if we wanted fried lamb’s blood in our soup. I asked for no blood and Gregg asked for a double helping.

Of course after eating we had to dance and drink some beer before being able to head home. A different, but pleasant end to Holy Week.